The top three wireless carriers in America have lost billions in revenue as smartphone demand dwindles in a reversal of the boom spurred by COVID lockdowns.
Immanual John Milton for Yahoo Finance:
AT&T Inc., T-Mobile US Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. collectively lost nearly $5 billion in equipment sales over the past 12 months compared to the previous year. T-Mobile’s equipment revenue fell 23% last quarter, while AT&T’s slipped 7% and Verizon’s postpaid phone upgrades dropped 34%.
Executives partly blame smartphone makers and say customers are content waiting longer between upgrades. Verizon Chief Executive Officer Hans Vestberg said on a recent earnings call that there hasn’t been any “major” new devices recently, while T-Mobile Chief Financial Officer Peter Osvaldik said customers are “happy with their devices” for longer time frames.
The turnaround comes after a surge in demand of wireless devices during the Covid-19 pandemic — revenues hit about $6 billion per carrier in the last quarter of 2020 when stimulus checks, product promotions and nationwide lockdowns spurred consumers to upgrade their electronic devices. Now, consumers have returned to pre-pandemic upgrade cycles as networks pull back on promotions.
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How can the jerk executives logically pin the blame on phone manufacturers for their customers purchasing decisions? If we had to depend on ATT, Verizon, etc., our phones would still have rotary dialers!
How can you lose something that you never had to begin with? There is no promise of repeating last year’s sales
Mobil carrier CEOs praying for authoritarian return to knockdowns. Screw your freedom…we demand more profit!